ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two specific aspects of the nineteenth-century history of the obsessional disorders: terminology and taxonomy. Terminological and taxonomic difficulties have bedevilled the obsessional disorders since their clinical inception. 'Obsessional states' are interloping fragments of behaviour characterized by inordinate repetition, anomalous content and resistance from the affected subject. The view that the obsessional disorders were a form of partial insanity or monomania did not last long. The concept of monomania had never been popular and by the 1850s it was criticized on various grounds. The collapse of the monomania concept did not lead to an immediate reclassification of the obsessional disorders as neurosis. Janet considered the obsessional disorders as a dislocation of function. S. Freud's early papers on obsessions had little impact on French psychiatry. This may have resulted, surprisingly enough, from the fact that his early ideas did not seem to depart considerably from contemporary.
